Problem with gaming.

R

Rising Phoenix

Geek Trainee
Right, so I posted in another thread that I was gettin a new PC, I have that now, and it looks like this:

INTEL Pentium D 3.4GHz Dual Core Model 945
ASRock 775i Intel 945GZ
XFX NVidia GeForce 7300 LE
250GB Samsung SATA-II 7200rpm/8MB HD
1024 MB 533MHz DDR II RAM
LG H10N 16x Multiformat Double Layer DVD-RW
8 Channel AC 97 Audio Codec Sound on Board
WLAN WIFI 140Mpbs / DSL-ready Ethernet

It's a lovely machine, very fast, but games just don't work properly. 3 Games I've tried. "Boiling Point: Road to Hell" (this one works much better now than it did on my old machine, but still quite slow).

Call of Duty 2. And Half Life 2: Episode One. Both of these games are drastically slow. They're very sluggish and generally unwilling to work. With Episode One, I put all the textures and video stuff down to lowest, and I turned off the HDR, while for the opening scene this made an improvement, it's still very sluggish and generally just not playable... With allt he setting up it visually looks great, but it's playing badly.

I'm unsure as to what the problem with this is, and if I'm posting in the wrong section I apologise. Can anyone help me out?
thanks.

THought it might be worth mentioning, CoD2 gives 3FPS as far as I can see. And Half Life tops off at 15-16.
 
What resolution are you using? The 7300LE isn't a real gamers card, so CoD2 may very well be eating it for lunch. HL2 should be a bit more forgiving, though.

If you haven't, I'd snag the latest drivers off nVidia's site and see if they do anything. Still, I don't think the 7300LE is doing you any favors, as LE's are usually the most crippled version of a card series, so that's likely your problem. However, it's also possible you've got a bad driver, which can also damage performance.
 
My Radeon 9600np could run on high settings, when overclocked i could run on super high with full AA and AF and HDR, and i am sure the 7300LE is better than my 9600np, but yea your graphics card aint going to do good at all for games like Cod2, you should consider a graphics upgrade if your planning on playing lots of games.

What power supply have you got? that could well be a problem as apart form the graphics card, its a preety beefy system.


Nice Specs BTW :good:
 
I'm using a 1024 x 1280 resolution, for all games.

Well quote form dad: "I haven't been able to successfully find updated drivers for that specific card. We have installed the drivers that came with CD's, with the computer, obviously." By updated he means that there doesn't seem to be any drivers online that are different to the ones that came with the CD's we got, if that makes sense.

the power supply looks to be a 350W BESTPOWER, (that's the standard for the site we bought it from).

My dad says that he would buy a new card, if, someone could tell him that the one he gets would work with the Dual Core Processor. I'm personally not entirely sure what he means by that, but I'm sure some of you guys will understand more than me.

Thanks again lads. great help.

edit: thanks for the comment on the specs. Dad had a good laugh (of appreciation).
 
Ok, well if your mobo has a PCI-E (PCI Express) connector on it, then you can use any PCI-E graphics card, same with AGP, just depend on your budget really..

350W..., well if your going to get a good graphics card, that power supply certainly will not be good enough, have you got any detaild specs on it?, its not about watts, its about the amps on the +12V rails in the PSU, you can usually find this information in the description on the site your going to buy it off, or just google the power supply and see if you can find any reviews on it.

Try running the games at 1024 x 768 and see if the performance increases.
 
I used to play CoD2 on my old system with 6600GT 128MB Ram. That means you can really play CoD2 on your gfx card (i think :D). Before jumping into conclusions of buying a new card, lets check something first. Your CPU is a dual core one, when you start playing try to assign the affinity to only one core first. I know that HL2 engines has been programmed for dual core systems but it wont hurt to check.

Setting the affinity:
Start the Game > Minimize the Game by pressing "Ctrl+Esc" > Press "Ctrl+Alt+Del" > Click Task Manager > Go to the Process Tab > Find HL2.exe(if you're playing HL2 :P) > Right click on it > Click Set Affinity > remove the tick on CPU 0 or CPU 1( dont remove both) > Click ok

Then try playing. If that didnt work, your problem is probably with the Gfx Card.
You said you just bought the Gfx Card, try returning it to the retailer. If you really wanna buy a new one, buy the 7600s to 7900s range depending on your budget.
 
A 6600GT is alot better than a 7300LE :p

If your planning on buying another graphics card, and considering the 7600GT or GS w.e, then wait for the X1650XT from ATi, its about same price as a 7600 i think, and it seems to be alot better than it from the reviews i have seen, its a preety good card unlike the other X1600 cards. If i just moved to PCI-E i wud consider a x1650XT card, the first X1600 card better than my X800XT pe :P
 
the budget is anywhere under 200 euro, so i'm thinkin maybe the NVidia GeForce 7600? That would be decent enough wouldn't it?

I'm not sure about my motherboard, I think it's PCI? not AGP, and to be honest, I don't even know what they mean and what not. (It is PCI-E)

And I don't know any more about my Power Supply. things are a bit hazy in that regard.
 
The X1650XT when it comes out will be PCI-E (PCI-Express), and i think it will be about the same price as the 7600 and proberbly do better than the 7600.
 
well yea lol its good :p, if u still have problems, well, either way you should consider getting a new PSU.
 
Do you anticipate me having problems? Cos at this point I haven't a clue as to how it's gonna work out...

I'll pass that comment about the PSU onto my dad, but I think at this stage he's gonna leave it alone after the Graphics Card comes...
 
Rising Phoenix said:
I'm using a 1024 x 1280 resolution, for all games.

Well quote form dad: "I haven't been able to successfully find updated drivers for that specific card. We have installed the drivers that came with CD's, with the computer, obviously." By updated he means that there doesn't seem to be any drivers online that are different to the ones that came with the CD's we got, if that makes sense.

the power supply looks to be a 350W BESTPOWER, (that's the standard for the site we bought it from).

My dad says that he would buy a new card, if, someone could tell him that the one he gets would work with the Dual Core Processor. I'm personally not entirely sure what he means by that, but I'm sure some of you guys will understand more than me.

Thanks again lads. great help.

edit: thanks for the comment on the specs. Dad had a good laugh (of appreciation).
Click to expand...

As long as the video card fits in the expansion slot, it will work with your system. As far as dual-core goes, it's use depends on the particular piece of software. Most games do not make use of multiple cores. You can get a little benefit with Quake 3 and 4, but there's not a whole lot that will gain anything, and that's not much.

I would get a 7600GT, as the 7600GS is similar in performance to the older 6600GT. If you're willing to go up a little bit, the Radeon X1950 Pro or GeForce 7900GS are excellent values at around $200 US.

However, if you do, definitely get a new PSU. Even a good PSU from FSP, Enermax or Antec is simply not designed to power a high-end video card. A 500W or so from the following companies will be sufficient for your system:
-Antec
-Enermax
-OCZ
-Tagan
-Hiper
-FSP/Sparkle/Fortron
-TTGI
-Seasonic
-Silverstone

You may get lucky and it run alright, however, I really would not risk it. You might be able to pull off a 450W unit from the above companies, but that's the absolute lowest I'd recommend. Nothing will kill your gaming session like random crashing.

As for the drivers, nVidia (click for the link) will have the latest drivers for their GeForce graphics chips. Simply due to manufacturing, video card companies would have a helluva time keeping up with the driver releases. Newer drivers may boost performance, fix bugs with games or certain applications, or address some other issue. On the flip side, if you're not having issues with your video card, then you can leave them alone.
 
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